The Rez

It has been proven that one’s surroundings has a strong influence on what they become because of links to things like their education, instances that they see and experience in their everyday life, the amount of opportunities they are presented with, etc. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the reader is able to see through Junior’s eyes how being a part of the Wellpinit reservation only limits the Indians in society. He constantly states how everyone is poor and how one of the only things for Indians to do there is drink. As cliché as it sounds, being in a non-thriving environment where all hope seems to be lost almost forces the youth to not flourish in life because they are not given the chance. For example, the Indian school’s resource pool is incredibly limited as the reader can infer from the scene with the decades old geometry textbook. Even though it was risky, I believe that Junior’s decision to transfer to Reardan will probably be the best decision he’s ever going to make in his life because it opens him up to new opportunities and allows him to prosper in life.

Native Son

The thing that touched me the most in the book "Native Son" was the ending when Max delivered his speech. It was one of the only times in the book when Bigger didn't find a white person as the enemy. Besides Jan's kindness in requesting for a lawyer and his understanding, in Bigger's mind, every other white person was setting him up to fail. Bigger saw Max as a white man that had the courage to stand up against his own kind and put the blame of Bigger's actions on them. He called out the problems in white society and how they cause blacks to act out.

A Principle to Keep

A principle that I believe should be kept is to put the needs of those that you love the most before your own. You can "love" your dog, a clothing store, that new phone you got for your birthday, and the list goes on and on. That's not the type of love I'm talking about. I'm talking about that sense of everlasting love that you feel, for instance, let's say your mother. The majority of people can say that they love their mom, the woman who gave birth to them (and in many cases) raised them to be the person that they are today. This is the type of love that allows one to do a crazy things that they wouldn't be able to do on a daily basis. This type of love is displayed in "The Road". The Man truly loves his son. He stated earlier in the book that his son was his driving force for living and he'd do anything to protect him. I can think of a few people that I truly love and I would go to the ends of the earth just to make sure that they were safe and happy. It may sound cheesy or cliché, but I just personally believe that it's a principle that we should all live by.

Janie

Janie Crawford

If there are three words that definitely define Janie, they are lovesick, impulsive, and self-evolved.

If nothing else, Janie is lovesick. Her life goal is to find the perfect husband and to experience true love. The whole story so far is about her dealing with her horrible choices of husbands. 

So far throughout the past twelve chapters of "Their Eyes Were Watching God", Janie has been very impulsive when it came to her making huge decisions. For example, she left Logan and married Joe within two months of meeting him.

Janie is self-evolved as she finds herself throughout the book. Her definition of the perfect husband actually evolves. Before she got married for the first time, she could only set her guidelines based off of what her grandmother suggested. First, all she wants is someone who's just rich and can support her. Second, it's someone who's attractive, ambitious, and who won't overwork her with strenuous labor. Also, I kind of feel like she was just looking for anyone to take her away from Logan. After her horrible experience with Joe, she wants someone who believes in the equality of women (such as Vergible Woods, better known as "Tea Cake").

What I'm Thankful For

I'm thankful for Kat and Safiyah for always making me laugh in English, and for also being the best group partners ever. Kat and I have two classes together and she has me dead in both of them EVERY SINGLE DAY so shout out to her. Safiyah makes me laugh a lot too, but I love how we share the struggle of answering questions in class. We seriously always have each other ready to bust out laughing whenever we're picked on. I love her for that so shoutout to her Safiyah too. To be completely honest, I was kind of worried that I wouldn't really be actual friends with anyone in this class, but they proved me wrong. So yeah, thanks for my mains. 😊

I'm thankful for Cuji because he picked up my pen that one time and he also gave me a book. I definitely didn't feel like getting out of my seat to pick it up so I was just gonna be down a pen for the rest of my life. I'm also thankful for Dijzhane and Yareli. You guys are amazing and Yareli, your dye is on point 👌👌. I'm thankful for Lydia because she was a really chill group partner and her eyebrows inspire me to make mine better lol (no lie). Last but not least, I'm thankful for Mr. McCarthy for being really awesome and flexible, and just teaching us a lot.

Hemingway

Three words that I would use to describe Hemingway's stories are timeless, effortless, intriguing, and entertaining. I feel as if it would be both ironic and inappropriate to write a long-winded blog entry about Hemingway's stories because he was so talented when it came to keeping his thoughts brief concise, so I'm going to keep it short. I have to admit that my favorite short stories in his collection were The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber and A Clean Well-Lighted Place because of how he constantly thought out of the box and forced the reader to think about all of the messages in between the lines with his Iceberg Theory.

Six Six-Word Stories

The kite was carried by the wind.

Balls of fire crossed the sky.

Jerry’s life flashed before his eyes.

Mother wept driving to the hospital.

The orange-stickered limos filled the streets.

She saw Jerry’s picture and cried.